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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
As someone who grew up reading comics during the Silver Age of Comics (approximately 1958 - 1970 or so), I was fortunate to own, read, and come to love the comics from the Golden Age (approximately 1939 - 1949 or so). Michael Chabon's novel spans the years from 1939 through the mid-fifties and comic books are the thematic motif he uses as a vehicle to explore that time and that jaw-dropping social innocence. Anyone who has even a passing interest in comic books and their origin will enjoy this book. In it, Chabon creates a convincing parallel universe that includes a historical facsimile of what the Golden Age of Comic books may have been like.
This is a book that explores the very big ideas of human transformation, Jewish mysticism, and the subtle variations on the concept of escape, all sugar-coated in rich layers of wishful but impossible remembrance.
The setting of the book is a mythical New York City. Chabon revisits The Empire State Building - home of Empire comics, the General Motors pavilion of the World's Fair (1939), and a Naval base in Antarctica.
Our first hero, Samuel Louis Klayman (Clay) may as well be the skinny boy we all remember from the body building ads that illustrated a bully kicking sand into the boy's face as the ad exclaimed, "Tired of being picked on?". Clay is described as, "seventeen when the adventures began: big-mouthed, perhaps not quite as quick on his feet as he liked to imagine, and tending to be, like many optimists, a little excitable. He was not in any conventional way, handsome.", "He slouched, and wore clothes badly; he always looked as though he had just been jumped for his lunch money.", and "...an omnivorous reader...". Clay is an inventory clerk at Empire Novelties Incorporated Company who occasionally gets, "to do an illustration" for an ad.
Josef Kavalier, on the other hand, is Clay's cousin who, in 1939, escapes from German occupied Prague via Asia, Japan, and finally San Francisco to Brooklyn, NY. Josef arrives believing that Sam is a commercial artist who can get him a job doing the same thing.
Joe is older than Sam. He is nearly nineteen and his hobby is stage magic and it is learned from Bernard Kornblum, "an 'eastern Jew, bone-thin, with a bushy red-beard". It is Kornblum who smuggles Josef Kavalier out of Prague along with the clay body of a giant-sized, androgynous Golem disguised as a cadaver. The Golem's casket is Joe's first significant escape. The character of Josef Kavalier will remind older readers of Jerzy Kozinski, author of The Painted Bird whose late night television appearances in the 1960's recounted his own talent for hiding from the authorities.
Once Sammy discovers Joe's ability to draw, he announces, "... I'll tell you what. I'm going to do better than just get you a job drawing the Gravmonica Friction-Powered Mouth Organ, all right? I'm going to get us into the big money." From here on forward, the young men team up to become Kavalier and Clay. The analogy to Golden Age comic's masters such as Simon and Kirby, Siegel and Shuster, and others is unmistakable and, in the hands of Chabon becomes a transcendent metafiction that is replete with real and manufactured historical acknowledgments that will have many readers rubbing their chins in admiration of the precision of Chabon's clever inventions.
Kavalier and Clay create a comic book character called The Escapist. Their comic quickly rivals the economic success of Superman and Captain Marvel. In the hands of Kavalier and Clay The Escapist becomes a vehicle through which Joe Kavalier expresses his hatred of Hitler and all things Nazi. Chabon uses The Escapist comic book as a vehicle to meticulously describe the historical development most comic book heroes explored from the early forties until the Congressional hearings that challenged the influence of comics on children and eventually, temporarily, censored the industry.
Concurrent to describing the evolution of The Escapist from comic book sensation to radio show and product merchandising windfall, Chabon traces Kavalier and Clay as their lives are woven by their venture.
The third, main character is Rosa Saks who is first a model for Joe Kavalier, then lover, and eventually a romance comic book creator. In a perfectly plausible subplot, she first engages Joe Kavalier to underwrite the cost of helping Jewish children escape from occupied territories on a ship called the Ark of Miriam in an effort to save his own brother Thomas.
Rosa also becomes the inspiration for The Luna Moth, a female superhero comic book that expanded the number of titles Kavalier and Clay created. "Luna Moth was a creature of the night, of the Other Worlds, of mystic regions where evil worked by means of spells and curses instead of bullets, torpedoes, or shells. Luna fought in the wonderworld against specters and demons, and defended all us unsuspecting dreamers against attack from the dark realms of sleep." Rosa falls in love with Joe as his art blossoms in The Luna Moth. A footnote informs us that, "Thirty years later" The Weird Worlds of the Luna Moth "quickly became a head-shop bestseller".
Sam Clay, on the other hand, discovers his homosexual preference. Through Sam Clay, Chabon explores the social mores of that time and masterfully examines the topic as a third rail subject pertaining to the comics industry.
Further adventures and life complications evolve these characters - too many to describe without spoiling the fun of reading. This is an entirely pleasant and entertaining book that is nothing more or less than a light, leisurely read assuming you have an interest in the general topic or historical period.
I will add that, like the comics of that time, there is nothing heavy about the reading despite the introduction and resolution of a remarkable pastiche of sublime themes and subplots. These are all handled with a genuine love and thorough understanding of the subject matter.
In an Author's Note, Chabon closes with this remark, "Finally, I want to acknowledge the deep debt I owe in this and everything else I've ever written to the work of the late Jack Kirby, the King of Comics." The book is a wonderful tribute.
Michael Chabon's website is: http://www.michaelchabon.com/ and well worth a visit.
You can purchase The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
When was the last time /. posted a review thatwas anything but glowingly positive? Everytime something goes up, it's either "Excellent" or "9/10"? Where are warnings: "Avoid this like the plague"? Reviews shouldn't just be "This was very very very good and everyone should read it"...
Agreed. Kavalier and Clay works on many, many levels. The world of comic books is used as a brillaint allegorical device to advance the true nature of the work.
Fundamentally, both of the main characters are incomplete and ineffectual alone, but together they form a perfect whole. The task of both Kavalier and Clay is to become complete indviduals. At it's simplest, Kavalier the artist and Clay the writer, join to create a complete work, The Escapist.
Further, is the recurring theme of the Golem (a man mad of clay). Kavalier, uses the Golem to escape Nazi occupied Eastern Europe. But then continues to use the man of Clay (note the capital C) to succeed in America.
Clay, on the other hand, is only able to assert himself and use his natural brialliance when joined with the talented, worldly, and handsome Kavalier. Whenever, this bond is loosened Clay is simply buffeted around by events.
Finally, we must look at the primary comic book character they created, The Escapist. An amalgam of the two men; The Escapist blends the skills (magic) of Kavalier, and the desires (Escapism) of Clay.
This complex novel of growth is mirrored by the world of comic books, from the original juvenalia of the early 30's to the complex (some thought dangerous) works of the 50's.
When war sunders the partnership, both men wallow. Clay in suburbia and Kavalier in the Antartic and later New York. Finally, there is an explosive moment of growth. Clay acknowledges his homosexuality, rejects his dependence on others, (vindicates himself and the comic book industry), and pursues a career in Hollywood. Kavalier, returns to the woman he loves (who ultimately "completes him" (sorry)). And the Golem is undone.
This book is enjoyable at the surface in showing the golden age of comic books (even Stan Lee makes an appearance) and WWII America, but it's a disservice to the author and yourself to not look deeper. I have made only the slightest scratch (possibly wrong) in this complex work. Enjoy.
Branch out! Don't be a stereotype and enjoy all things geeky.
People are likely to make fun of you, because this is /. and admitting anything close to a weakness (esp. an intellectual weakness) will bring the trolls out in force. I'm sure these same people have never even read the book.
I read it shortly after it came out, mostly on the strength of an interview with Chabon that I happened across on the radio. The author struck me as an amazingly brilliant, but more importantly, interesting man. I remember he mentioned Superman, and how he was created by Jewish Americans (like the protagonists in his book). It was interesting hearing his take on Superman as being akin to a Jewish immigrant; he even has the name 'Clark Kent' as a way of fitting in, to have as WASPy a name as he could. No alien-sounding "Kal-El", no sir. Anyway, polished off K&C within about a week, but it was certainly not an easy read. I kept my collegiate dictionary handy, and I used it quite often.
I've noticed that young, intelligent men (women seem not to do this so much) often write "to impress". The writing is too self-conscious, too "look at me, ain't I brilliant?" Somebody else mentioned David Foster Wallace, and while a lot of English geeks will no doubt hate me (and think me an idiot) for saying this, I think his writing suffers from this attitude. It's a fine line to walk, I'll admit. Chabon doesn't fall into this trap, I don't think, but at times he seemed perilously close.
I recommend the book highly. I think a lot of folks here would get a lot out if it, as its extremely rich and can be enjoyed on many different levels. There was a very insightful post earlier dissecting the work, so I'll just let that one stand, as I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do a better job.
I'd suggest you don't use Slashdot as your only news source, or you will suffer permanent brain damage.
You know what? You touch on an interesting point, which is similar to how Wonder Boys was written. In both of them they deal with fairly serious topics (the breakup of a marriage, world war 2 [quite different amongst themselves]) and in both books Chabon definately seperates the reader from the emotions of the situation. Its almost like he purposefully does it to keep the focus on the story being told not the emotions wrapped up with it... interesting... i didn't even think about it til i read your post.
I also loved this book, but I have to disagree with those who found the beginning slow going. Maybe it's because it touches on me directly (my parents were Czechoslovak Jews who have pretty amazing stories of their own of surviving the same time and place), and maybe it's because I'm fascinated (as Norbert Weiner was) with Golem stories as precursors of robot stories, but I thought the first part was by far the best, and was waiting in vain for the book's reality to blur again into magical fantasy later in the book. The first part was oddly different from the rest, but I thought it was utterly wonderful. It also raises the question of whether the Golem stories are the mystical Judaism precursors of the Superman-type stories, too. If you find superhero comics worth thinking about, this is hardly beside the point.
mt